Has anyone rooted a Wink Hub Lately?

Hardware Server
1

I have had my own custom automation in my house for awhile now using a combination of RaspberryPi, python scripts, and a custom developed web app and android app I built myself. It was initially for fun, so to speak, and works very well, but I am of course limited to the devices that I can integrate.

I want to really step it up and start getting something solid and very flexible (OpenHAB, RPi, Arduino, MQTT, etc. etc.) There is a lot of info out there and it can be overwhelming at times.

Anyway, in researching the best next step forward, I came across the Wink Hub and its “potential” rooting capability that would allow direct local interaction with aprontest. Essentially, it would really act more like a bridge with bindings to the OpenHAB server. I like the Wink because of all the various radios and device capability. So, I bought one. I haven’t opened it yet, but have been researching and one thing I apparently failed to realize is that a lot of the rooted Wink information out there is at least a year or more old. No real talk about it much since then.

I realize that the days of being able to exploit using php are long gone, but I have seen references to a hardware hack (grounding out the chip at a very specific time in a boot sequence) state that this will work with any firmware out there. The most recent affirmation I have seen of this is only a couple of months old.

However, I am curious if anyone has recently rooted a newer Wink Hub successfully?

Mike

2

I have a rooted hub sitting in my basement on the shelf. I’m keeping my hopes up for an eventual wink binding with local support for use with OpenHab. I agree the Wink hub is a good box with all of the antenna’s but I and most others have moved on to a more home grown system.

ie, using a Rasberrry PI with Z-Stick and maybe add a philips hue hub. I know thats 2 separate boxes, but not sure of a better way yet.

3

I guess I am slightly confused, being new to this all - I thought that the Wink Hub could be used locally with OH? I mean, I don’t think that I have read about direct binding, but doesn’t the Wink now have API’s you can use as well as being able to send aprontest locally?

4

If you root your wink hub than yes you can pass the aprontest command from OH to the wink hub for local control with OH.

But you may be limited in what you can do with the aprontest. All I ever did with it was turn a light on/off with an aprontest. So I have no idea when it comes to locks etc.

Also keep in mind the ability for the need to push from the wink hub back to OH. Ie. you turned on a light manully, the wink hub updates the status, but you still need to push the light status update to the openhab. There are some scripts you can run directly on a rooted wink hub to do that.

If you really want to try i recommend just giving it a go with some of the older how tos. If your hub is new and out of the box. Just keep it disconnected from the internet and try the root process… the wink hub is relativley cheap in the overall when you start to figure in the many zwave devices you may have.

5

Just wanted to come back and let everyone know that it is still possible to root the wink hub “the hard way” by grounding out the NAND #29 pin at the ext right second. I must have been lucky as I was able to get it within about 15 minutes. I can confirm that this is a brand new Wink Hub that I just bought. I cannot confirm the firmware as I have yet been able to figure out that command from the terminal as I haven’t even installed the app and don’t intend to as I can see no reason.

This was the guide I used to do it with.

https://mattcarrier.com/post/hacking-the-winkhub-part-1/

Mike

6

I just picked up a Wink Hub from Home Depot a couple days ago. The link shelzmike shared definitely provides a path to successfully root it.

I think this shows the versions I’m working with:

[root@flex-dvt ]# cd /database
[root@flex-dvt database]# cat cf_fver*
00.01
00.22
00.01
02.68
[root@flex-dvt database]#

The wink hub version I’m running has a Node based local control server running on it that was pretty easy to figure out and although I just installed OpenHab on an extra laptop I have today, I was able to hack the demo config with a couple extra scripts to make a light switch control one of the lights connected to the wink. It was straight forward since the Wink Hub has a simple local control REST JSON API. The code for the local control server is in /opt/local_control/

I disabled the SSL in the node server code (it wasn’t taking well to the ssl cert I was trying to install to side step the self signed cert that’s built in so I got lazy and turned it off entirely) and set some authentication tokens to use with OpenHab in /database/local_control_data/config.json then used some information I gleamed from this post https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/openhab/pmrns4Yb8fM/BzqCJrpt7ycJ to control one of the lights. The only real difference from the information gleamed from that google groups post is that I was polling my local wink hub API instead of the cloud wink API. The local control API is very similar. instead of /light_bulbs/000 it’s /lights/000. You can find all the details in the node server code. It’s really clean, I’m finding it to be a pleasure to read and tinker with. The PUT requests made to the local API almost instantly modulate the light so I’m satisfied with the tinkering effort for today. I’m loving how straight forward this Wink is. I might stop it from updating to preserve the awesomeness.

I haven’t found much info about the Node local control API outside of this reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/winkhub/comments/3kxr4q/new_firmware_and_scheduled_maintenance/cv2t8os/ but it’s definitely there and easy to use if your hub is rooted.

Now I need to actually learn OpenHab. :slight_smile:

7

This is great stuff! Although, I think the firmware on my Wink Hub is quite a bit outdated compared to yours. I am concerned with trying to upgrade firmware and keeping root. Using aprontest via ssh and persistent ssh connections works well for me right now. There is a slight delay, sure, but nothing that we can’t work with though. In any event, I still maintain that the Wink Hub is the (well, has the potential to be) the BEST automation bridge out there, all they need to do is be brave and step out of being so locked into proprietary interactions. I haven’t read much on it recently, but having an API that can be controlled locally without using their app would make them so much better…not sure if they just don’t realize that or don’t care. Who knows.

8

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are doing well given the on-going situation.

I have been able to root my win hub, it is running the latest firmware. I am able also to get the API to work but when I try to query devices I get the following as response from the hub:

{“data”:[],“errors”:[],“pagination”:{“count”:0}}

I know as a matter of fact I have a zigbee device discovered by using aprontest but it is not reported.

[root@flex-dvt ~]# aprontest -l
Found 1 devices in database…
MASTERID | INTERCONNECT | USERNAME
3 | ZIGBEE | New HA On/Off Light

Just wondering if you have any ideas what can be broken here.

Thank you kindly.

David